Sunday, May 09, 2010

Significance of Esthetic Buccal Flap (EBF) in Implant Surgery

Although dental implantology has tremendously advanced in the last decade, there are still a few flaws and backdrops in the procedures when it comes to perfect esthetic appearance, especially for those who want to have natural appearance immediately after implant surgery. For such people, a flapless implant surgery has come into being recently. It was discovered in order to rectify the flaws of other implant procedures and to deal with those factors which flap designs in implant surgeries. But these procedures are not able to correct the vertical and horizontal wall defects of one wall or more, and are also not able to correct dehiscence or fenestrations without disturbing the esthetics.
Hence, a new Flap design was introduced in the implant surgery which aimed at maintaining maximum esthetic appearance while rectifying other defects as well at the same time, and this flap design is known as Esthetic Buccal Flap (EBF). It is best preferred for single missing tooth or multiple missing teeth where the adjacent soft tissues and bony structures are intact. And is more preferred in the anterior region so as to achieve perfect harmony with the implant position, bone level, soft tissue esthetics and tooth form and color. It can satisfy all these factors and give good esthetics without any scar tissue formation.

When a prosthesis or implant is inserted in the jaw bone, after a gap of 6 months or more, a clinical assessment is done to check for the progress and regeneration of bone, and its adaptability to the surrounding structures. An assessment of mid buccal probing height is also done together with the detection of any present signs of scar tissue, based on which a soft tissue adaption is preferred.

The height of the soft tissue remains the same before and after the surgery, the papillae and the probing dept also appears to be the same after the surgery, and there will be no sign of any scar tissue. Thus, Esthetic buccal flap along with rightly guided bone augmentation allows perfect esthetics in implant surgery which also rectifies any wall defects as well. The esthetic buccal flap in implant surgeries helps to get a normal gingival appearance after the implants are placed.